Dryden GM Ice Dog Jacen Bracko dangles the puck against Thief River Falls captain Logan Jackson during the first period Sunday evening at the Dryden Memorial Arena Photo by Michael Christianson

By Michael Christianson

After shutting out the Thief River Falls Norskies twice in Minnesota the Dryden GM Ice Dogs hosted the team at the Memorial Arena on Sunday evening hoping for another victory.

The game started hard and fast with the puck moving up and down the ice with few whistles. The Norskies’ Parker Simonson got the first call of the game for hooking and four second later Brendan Jay found the back of the net to put the Dogs up 1-0.

The pace would remain for the rest of the first period that saw only the one goal.

Early into the second period Mitchell Soderberg got Thief River on the board. Evan Walls got the Ice Dogs back on top off a great feed from Malcolm Huemmert.

At 12:25 into the second period Connor Mowatt got the first penalty of the night for the Ice Dogs with a boarding call. The penalty would give the Norskies enough for Blair Lindholm to score and 28 second later Aslan Akervik gave Thief River their first lead of the night, leaving the score 3-2 after forty minutes.

In the third period the Ice Dogs kept the Norskies within one even as Dryden served three separate penalties.

With 30 second left in the game Cory Dennis scored on Bailey Schmitz to force extra time.

Overtime saw Thief River’s Michael Johnson take a slashing penalty but Schmitz held off many good chances from Dryden to take the game to a shootout.

Only the first shot would beat Jacob Gnidziejko while Jacen Bracko and Tristan Simm would each score to secure a victory for the Dryden GM Ice Dogs.

Ice Dogs captain Trevor Kavanaugh noted the team played well even without a full roster, due to suspensions, and said that Thief River battled hard.

“We came out flat at the beginning actually, we could have played a lot better but at times we put the work in and good things happened,” said Kavanuagh. ”We didn’t quit on the shifts and we didn’t quit on each other.”

Off the ice, Dudley Hewitt Cup preparations continue in the city as the tournament is now less than 100 days away. Dryden GM Ice Dogs president Mike Sveinson and his team are busy getting everything together and they have already sold out half of their Dudley Dozen exclusive tickets.

“The Dudley Dozen is our premier fundraiser for the Dudley Hewitt Cup tournament that is available to both businesses and individuals,” said Sveinson. “It comes with, you get a commemorative Dudley Hewitt Cup jersey, you get a commemorative lanyard with VIP access to all the games and all areas of the tournament as well as you can take part in opening and closing ceremonies with the team and all the dignitaries from the other leagues. It’s $1000 for that and we’ve got six out of twelve sold and we’ll only sell twelve so we’re looking to get those sold this month so we can move onto our next fundraising initiative.”

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About Author

Chris Marchand is a native of Dryden, Ontario. He served his first newspaper internship at The Dryden Observer in 1998 while attending journalism studies at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops B.C.
He's worked desks as both reporter and editor at the Fernie Free Press as well as filled the role of sports editor at the Cranbrook Daily Townsman.
Marchand was named editor of the Dryden Observer in Aug. 2009.